Pacific Specialty realized that they needed to undergo a comprehensive digital transformation in order to grow and remain competitive in the rapidly-changing world of P&C insurance. With that in mind, they pursued the aggressive goal of becoming a true “virtual carrier” – making the move to a modern, cloud-based core systems suite for improved speed and customer service, plus lower operating costs. The company also set out to streamline policy, billing, and claims administration by automating processes and sharing data across their full software suite. As if those goals weren’t aggressive enough, they also targeted full implementation of their new core systems in a very short period of time, knowing that they needed to minimize any potential disruption to their business processes while undertaking this expansive transformation.
Pacific Specialty’s story was not an uncommon one; their proprietary back-end software suite was challenging and time-consuming to update, slowing business and product development, while their outdated, on-premises AS/400 server required in-house maintenance and could not keep up with the modern pace of business. Overall, like many carriers, legacy technologies limited the company’s strategic initiatives and hampered profitable growth. Pacific Specialty knew it was time for a change, and so in early 2015, they chose to replace their on-premises core systems with the Duck Creek Suite, delivered via OnDemand, Duck Creek’s SaaS solution for the P&C insurance industry.
Less than seven months later, the first phase of Pacific Specialty’s deployment was complete; by early 2016, the firm had transitioned all of their lines of business to the Duck Creek Platform. As a result, Pacific Specialty was able to scale up cost-effectively and improve efficiencies by automating previously labor-intensive processes and streamlining workflows throughout their business. In addition, the carrier chose to implement Duck Creek’s Digital Engagement solutions, enabling the carrier to deliver best-in-class digital customer experiences on all devices. In the words of Pacific Specialty CIO Jim P. Lee, “We chose SaaS delivery of the Duck Creek Suite to leverage its modern technology quickly with minimal business disruption. The end-to-end capabilities of Duck Creek OnDemand reduce our operating expenses and let us focus on providing competitive products and services to our customers and stakeholders.”
The icing on the cake? Pacific Specialty’s digital transformation earned them Celent’s 2016 Model Insurer award winner for Operational Excellence in IT Management.
If you want to learn more about digital transformations like the one Pacific Specialty undertook, and how to approach a future defined by speed and change, download our white paper, Imperatives for How to Build for Speed, today.
